Friday Progress

Though we had some setbacks and frustrations yesterday, there also was a lot of progress. We Praise the Lord and thank Him for Blaire's quick and positive recovery.

Today, was a much better day, and Blaire made even more progress. First, Dr. Karlen came in and removed her dressing, the on-cue medicine tubes which was a medication pack that automatically gave medicne directly to Blaire's incision site. (I did not mention that one when I was naming all the tubes in her... did not even know it was there at the time). He also removed her drainage tube. What a beautiful back Blaire has. The incision is quite large, but is clean and flat and seems to be healing well.

After that, Blaire continued on working on her walking. Courtnie her cheer coach came to visit, and I gratefully let her put her budding Physical Therapy expertise to work as she helped Blaire take a short walk down the hallway.

Later, Blaire was taken to the x-ray department and x-rays were taken with her in a standing position. Tomorrow we will learn how straight her back is now. We are SO pleased at how straight and symmetric it looks, so we already know what a success her surgery was.

Blaire had other visitors; Lizzy, Taylor and her Aunt Diane came with Sammi and Jacob. Her Impact youth group leader from Scottsdale Bible came, and Grace also returned for another visit. Those visits really inspired Blaire to work hard at getting up and walking.


Her IV's needed to come out, so this afternoon both remaining IV's were removed... That is it... Blaire is tube and monitor free. And Nushka came and helped Blaire with her last Physical Therapy walk. They walked around the unit to the Lighted picture board that Blaire remembered from the last time she was here almost 6 years ago! Nushka even had her climb up a couple steps. Wow... 4 days after spinal fusion surgery... Aunt Barbara: what advances they have made since your surgery!

Now that she has all her IV's out, all her pain medication is being given orally. This transition has been a little rough, as she cannot give herself the jolts of morphine when the pain begins. But we are trying to get her on a schedule alternating between codeine and valium to keep her pain control steady.

Because Blaire still does not have much of an appetite, these medications on an empty stomach is making her nauseous, so she has been taking an anti-nauseous medicine. We are hoping to wean her off of that by morning.

With all the progress she is making, Blaire may be coming home tomorrow night! She will have a lot more healing to do there, but Granny is anxiously waiting to give her the love and attention that will help her heal more than anything else can!

Thank you all for all your love, support and prayers. I can truly say we felt the hand of God on Blaire. And we felt the peace that passes all understanding as we ached when we had to watch Blaire go through the pain. We know that through tribulations, we grow both as a Christian and as a person, and I know this experience will change Blaire into an even more amazing and sweet young lady.

Call me 480-688-8546 if you want to visit tomorrow, so I can give you the latest updates.